Current affairs September 21-30

From 22 September Haryana’s Gurgaon city will observe car-free day every Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to encourage people to use alternative modes of transport. The idea is to give an experience of car-free streets to the people and persuade them to use sustainable modes of transport.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), passed away at a private hospital in Kolkata on 20 September 2015. He is known as the person who understood the potential of India becoming commercially a global powerhouse of cricket.

The draft of the New Encryption Policy was issued by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology recently. This policy pertains to messaging services like WhatsApp, Viber, Line, Google Chat, Yahoo messenger etc. One important proposal in the draft was – “All messages must be mandatorily stored for 90 days',later withdrew this proposal due to strong opposition from the public.

Greek voters returned Alexis Tsipras to power with a comfortable win for his Syriza party in the snap election held on 20 September 2015. The snap election was called after Syriza lost its majority in August 2015 as some of his MP‟s defected in protest at the signing of an unpopular new financial bailout deal with international creditors.

A National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team on 21 September 2015 managed to successfully evacuate two labourers from a tunnel in Himachal Pradesh in which they were trapped for last 9 days. This tunnel situated in Bilaspur is part of Kiratpur-Manali expressway road project .

Indian Coast Guard commissioned indigenously built vessels Apoorva & C-421.The induction of the vessels is expected to boost maritime security along the Arabian Sea coast.

Google, Tata Trusts announced the launch of Android Developer Nanodegrees programme.As a part of the Udacity Android Nanodegree program, 1000 scholarships will be offered to deserving students by Google and Tata Trusts.

Infosys was awarded the contract for building the interface for implementing the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) .

The Union Cabinet cleared the purchase of two helicopter ( Apache and Chinook) from Boeing Co. of the United States.

German based Volkswagen AG (VW) came under controversy after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disclosed that the company used software that deceived regulators measuring toxic emissions. US authorities announced further probe in the matter and VW could face penalties of up to $18 billion. Volkswagen AG (VW) is the largest auto company in the world with some leading brands such as Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Volkswagen, Skoda and SEAT under its belt.

Microsoft Corp. began the worldwide release of the new Office suite “Office 2016” .

Game of Thrones won 12 awards at 67th Primetime Emmy Awards.Famous American fantasy drama television series, Game of Thrones, won an unprecedented 12 awards at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Rajasthan passed first-of-its-kind of legislative bill that provides 14% reservation for economically backward classes (EBCs). According to this bill, criterion for reservation in the EBC category will be purely economic and not caste-based.

(SEBI) imposed the biggest-ever fine of Rs. 7,269.5 crore on construction and real entity PACL for illegal and fraudulent mobilisation of funds from the public.

Richie Richardson appointed to Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees.Javagal Srinath is the only Indian in the seven member elite panel of the ICC.

Metroman E Sreedharan to join UN's High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport

Ajay Jayaram won Silver Medal in 2015 Korea Open Badminton tournament.Jayram is currently ranked 32 in the Men's Singles world ranking.

Instagram photo-sharing website recently surpassed micro-blogging site Twitter in terms of users. Instagram now has over 400 million active users.

In the worst Hajj tragedies in recent years, more than 700 persons were killed and hundreds other were injured in a stampede outside the holy city of Mecca during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia on 24 September 2015. This stampede took place at Mina near Mecca.

Chaitanya Tamhane's critically acclaimed Marathi film “Court” was selected as India’s official entry to the Best Foreign Language category of the Oscars 2016.

Telecom operator Uninor on 23 September 2015 changed its name to Telenor, the name of its Norway-based parent company.

The Union Cabinet on 23 September 2015 cleared the proposal for a nearly Rs. 8,000-crore project for IAF‟s Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS). It will help in integrating all ground and air sensors to get a composite air situation picture of the country.

Facebook changed name of its free internet platform”internet.org” to “Free Basics by Facebook” .

Sourav Ganguly will succeed late Jagmohan Dalmiya as the president of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) as announced by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

National Tourism Awards 2013-14 presented.The state of Gujarat was awarded for the Best State/UT for Comprehensive Tourism Development.

The Group of Four (G4) Summit took place on 26 September 2015 after almost a decade. G4 was formed with the objective of supporting each other‟s bids for permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Japan, Germany, India and Brazil are the member countries.

The “Digital India” dinner in the honour of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was hosted at San Jose city Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the world‟s top tech chiefs, including Adobe‟s Shantanu Narayen, Qualcomm‟s Paul Jacobs, Cisco‟s John Chambers, Microsoft‟s Satya Nadella and Google‟s Sundar Pichai on the occasion of the “Digital India” dinner.

Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s year-long Birth Centenary Celebrations were initiated by the Union Govt. from 25 September 2015 on the occasion of his 99th Birth Anniversary.

Pankaj Advani won the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Adelaide (Australia) on 27 September 2015 to take his world title count to 14.

Dr. Syed Ahmad, passed away at a hospital in Mumbai on 27 September 2015 . 75-year old Dr. Syed Ahmad was the 16th Governor of Manipur.

Cow declared as National Animal of Nepal.The declaration was made under the new secular constitution of Nepal unveiled by Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav at Kathmandu.

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NASA developing space shotgun as part of its Asteroid Redirect Mission.Asteroid Redirect Mission or ARM is NASA’s first ever robotic mission aimed at redirecting asteroids into a stable orbit around the moon.

Union Ministry of Road Transport launched Green Highways Policy, 2015.The Green Highway Policy will make it compulsory for road developers to set aside 1 per cent of the total project cost for plantation.

Union Government formed B S Baswan committee to revisit civil services examination pattern.The committee will submit a report on a range of issues related to the examination-eligibility criteria, number of attempts, revision of syllabus, usage of technology, etc.

27 September: World Tourism Day observed with theme One Billion Tourists, One Billion Opportunities

INS Kochi, indigenously built largest warship, dedicated to the nation.It weighs over 7500 tonnes and is equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and sensors including long-range surface-to-surface BrahMos missile.

Fourth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement 2015-16 announced; Repo rate cut by 0.50 percent.New repo rate 6.75%. As a result, the reverse repo rate, the rate at which RBI borrows from commercial banks, stands adjusted to 5.75 percent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 7.75 per cent. However, the cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks was kept unchanged at 4 percent of net demand and time liabilities (NDTL).

Strong Evidence of Liquid Water on Mars: NASA.The researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet using an imaging spectrometer on MRO.